Author: DarrellShea

16:22 10 March 2016 Anthony Carroll 1 The damaged BT box in Old Buckenham after a crash which has left homes in the village without phones and internet. Archant Norfolk Photographic 2016 More than 150 homes in a Norfolk village have been left without the internet or phone lines for a week after a vehicle crashed in to an exchange box. A total of 152 homes in Old Buckenham, near Attleborough, have been without the services since the accident happened off the B1107 on the night of Thursday, March 3.

BT says it hopes repair and replacement work on the cabinet will be completed by Monday. In the meantime Old Buckenham Parish Council is asking residents to check on elderly neighbours and friends if they do not have access to phones to call emergency services. Parish council chairman Steve Milner also said there had been a lack of communication from BT over when the cabinet will be repaired.

He said: There has been a lack of information. Luckily we have a resident who has a contact with BT and we are then passing on the information we receive manually, I am concerned there are a lot of elderly vulnerable people in Old Buckenham and their safety position could be compromised if they do not have access to a phone. A spokesman for BT said: Our cabinet has been badly damaged by this road traffic accident on the evening of March 3.

There is a great deal of work for engineers to do to repair the damage to cabling and replace the box. There will be around 150 homes that have lost services due to this incident. We have explored, but has not been possible to get a temporary solution.

It is regrettable when Openreach suffers any accidental damage to its network. Our priority is to restore services to those affected, and we are doing all we can to get this completed as quickly as possible. We are aiming to have this all completed by close of play on Monday, but will of course be doing all we can to get it completed earlier if it is possible.

A security guard, Tsakani Sithole of Malamulele completed his degree in teaching and is goint to graduate in April this year. LIMPOPO Sithole, however, will not be returning to the University of Venda as a student. He has completed his degree and now returns as a teacher.

For Sithole from Malamulele, graduating in a few months time will mean the hard work he put in and sacrificing his job as a security guard will have been worth it. The son of a migrant worker dad and a domestic worker mother, Sithole knew early in life he wanted to become a teacher. After matriculating in 1996, however, he went to Natal Technikon, now Durban University of Technology, to complete a media studies qualification.

Two years down the line, Sithole had to drop out as his father passed away. After spending some time looking for work, Sithole enrolled for a security training course and soon after found a job as a security guard in Johannesburg. After working for seven years, Sithole resigned from his job as a security guard and worked for two years as a cashier at a fast food restaurant.

This job was a step closer to Sithole realising his dream. The job was situated near a library which made it easier for him to access information on financing opportunities to enable him to go to university full-time. Ignoring the negativity and laughter of discouraging friends and relatives, Sithole chose to focus on the support of his wife, herself a graduate, as well as his mother who encouraged him to follow his dream.

Aged 33, Sithole didn t mind being an older student. Not even the strike and total shut-down at Malamulele was an obstacle to him. Sithole managed to sneak out and move into a nearby village where he was able to get transport to school.

This helped him prove to himself and his detractors that everything is possible to those who believe and work hard.